Amex Avios points offer – spending deadline missed!

[Radar789]

I decided to apply for the AMEX BA premium card and pay the hefty subscription up front as it offered 60k Avios points if you spent £6k in the first 3 months.

Sadly, after I received the card, the first 3 months this year were a total disaster for me! It began with my Mother passing away in February. Then my wife was informed she may have a cancer in March, followed by my Mother-in-law falling very ill. On top of all this, I was extremely stressed out with multiple projects at work. To top it all, I got a burst blood vessel in my eye in April. Frankly, I was not in a position to go out and spend what I would usually spend…! It is only since April/May that my spending resumed, however, I missed the dealine by a couple of weeks! Amex claim that they are unable to assist and offered me a token 5k in Avios points. Any suggestions or comments on whether I should appeal to Amex would be most welcome. I am also interested to see if anyone has a view on the other credit card companies and whether they are more supportive as I don’t feel comfortable staying with Amex if this is how they treat their customers.

[Rob]

You won’t get any joy from Amex on this.

However, the card still has a pro-rata refund so you cancel and start the 2 year clock until you can reapply and get the bonus again.

[NorthernLass]

I sincerely hope things start to improve – you can still earn the companion voucher OR look at referring your wife for her own card. If she’s accepted she could get the SUB, and you would get some avios for referring her.

[Scott]

I think you should forget about the points. It’s very, very, unlikely that Amex would extend the timescale for qualifying, but more than that, given the serious health issues being faced by you and your family, I’m sure you’ll soon realise the gaining a few thousand Amex points is not what really matters in life. You could really do without giving yourself any more stress by worrying about something you feel you’ve missed out on.

[Misty]

I also hope that things improve for you. As suggested above maybe go for a pro-rata refund, but refer your wife before you do this, although thinking it through if that would then put your wife/yourself under more stress maybe forget about the points, at this stage.

I’m not sure of your circumstances regarding other cards you may hold, but Barclaycard do an Avios plus card which comes with an admittedly smaller sub and monthly fee, plus a voucher.

In terms of other credit card companies and whether they are more supportive in such circumstances that you have been through, I don’t think that Barclaycard et al would treat the sad situation any differently.